1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicle body mount structure for a curtain airbag that is applied to vehicles such as motor vehicles.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some vehicles such as motor vehicles and are equipped with curtain airbags in order to improve safety at the time of a vehicle emergency (in particular, at the time of a side collision). In this kind of curtain airbag, an airbag body is deployably provided on an upper side surface of a cabin. At the time of a vehicle emergency, the airbag body is inflated and deployed to protect an occupant (particularly, a head of the occupant).
At the time of inflation and deployment of the airbag body, a peripheral edge portion of a ceiling inner lining (roof headlining) covering the airbag body during a normal state is pushed widely open to a cabin inner side by the inflation pressure of the airbag body, so that the airbag body is deployed into the cabin (e.g., see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-58555 (JP-A-2001-58555)).
However, in conjunction with this mount structure for a curtain airbag, there is a problem of complicatedness of the material strength setting of various mounting parts and of the dimensional coordination or adjustment of the mounting parts.
That is, usually, an airbag body is provided deployably on an upper-side surface of the cabin interior, and is covered with a roof headlining, and the roof headlining is retained at a predetermined position by the fitting and latching of resin-made hook nails attached to the roof headlining with metal clips that are attached to the vehicle body. The airbag body is constructed so that at the time of deployment, the airbag body, by its own inflation pressure, bends the roof headlining, and pushes it widely open to a cabin inner side. Therefore, as for the performance of the metal clips and the hook nails that retain and fix the roof headlining at a predetermined position, “pull-apart easiness” is required since there is a need to secure a smooth deployment of an airbag body. On the other hand, during the normal state, since there is a need to securely retain and fix the roof headlining at a predetermined position, “pull-apart difficulty” is required. That is, the metal clips and the hook nails are required to have performances that conflict with each other.
For example, if the strength of the metal clips and the hook nails is set unnecessarily high in order to securely retain and fix the roof headlining at a predetermined position during the normal state, this will become a cause of deterioration of the deployability of the airbag body. On the other hand, if the pull-apart strength of the metal clips and the hook nails is set unnecessarily low, this will become a cause of bumpy movement of the roof headlining and an unusual sound.
Thus, it is complicated and troublesome to set and coordinate or adjust the material strengths of metal clips and the hook nails for retaining and fixing a roof headlining, and related various component parts, or to set and coordinate or adjust the dimensions thereof. Means for resolving this problem has been demanded.